It was thought that her future husband would then appear, take hold of the other piece of wood, and join her in her work; should the wraith appear, a marriage within six months followed.
Troi Crysau or Clothes Drying Test.
Young maidens washed linen after the household had retired, and placed the articles by the fire to dry, and then watched to see who should come at midnight to turn the clothes. In this case, again, the evil one is said to have entered the kitchen to perform this work for the young woman, and also it is affirmed that a coffin has, ere this, moved along through the room, a sure prognostication that she was doomed to die single. Bardd Cwsg mentions this practice.
He writes in the third part of his book, where a devil is accused in the Parliament of Hell, thus:—“Aeth nos Ystwyll ddiweddaf i ymweled a dwy ferch ieuanc yng Nghymru oedd yn troi crysau, ac yn lle denu’r genethod i faswedd, yn rhith llanc glandeg, myned ag elor i sobreiddio un; a myned a thrwst rhyfel at y llall mewn corwynt uffernol.”
“He went on the night of Epiphany to visit two young girls in Wales, who were turning shirts, and, instead of enticing them to folly, in the form of a handsome young man, he took to the one a coffin to sober her, and to the other he appeared in a hellish whirlwind, with a horrible noise.”
Happy, however, is the young woman should the man she loves appear, for he is to be her husband.
Hemp Seed Sowing.
A young married woman, a native of Denbighshire, told me that if a young woman sowed hemp seed, the figure of her lover would appear and follow her. This was to be done by night on Hallow Eve. I find from English Folk-Lore, p. 15, that this divination is practised in Devonshire on St. Valentine’s Eve, and that the young woman runs round the church repeating, without stopping, the following lines:—
“I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow,
He that loves me best
Come, and after me now.”Sage Gathering.
A young person who went of a night to the garden, and stripped the leaves of the sage tree, would, as the clock struck twelve, be joined by her lover. This was to be done on All Hallow Eve.